"I'm telling you stories. Trust me." - Winterson

So I rode the Rio-clone in my lesson today. Cute little horse -- a bit downhill (well I *did* say he was like Rio :) Nothing terribly exciting about him, but nothing bad either. Lesson was awesome though from a rider-focus pov (as opposed to a horse-focus which 90% of them are). Think lunge-lesson type details, except not actually on a lunge *g*. @ one point I started to laugh cause I had 4 corrections in less than a stride. Literally. Just think of how FAST the corrections were coming for that to happen! And of course they didn't stop at that stride...

Sit deeper, shorten your reins, relax your thigh, eyes up, lower leg on... but SOFT!, shorten your reins, bend your elbows, chin up, hands lower, hands higher (that combination amused me), inside leg forward, rythym (what?!?!?! I'm just trying to keep me ON the horse in the right position, or some variation thereof -- you want me to RIDE too!?!?! Sheesh! hahaha), outside leg back - too far!, stretch up, outside rein shorter, bend your elbows (I admit I have trouble bending my elbows when my reins are really short! It's still an either-or propsition @ the moment so those two commands tend to come together often), chin up, softer back, rythym, leg down (yeah Mary that one's still haunting me!), shorten your reins . . . Well you get the gist. Can you figure out bad habit number one?!?! Continue this for half an hour or so... It was like being in step-class a level higher than you really should be :) Eventually you get so tangled up you don't know WHAT you're doing -- but then when you do get it you're thrilled. Except I'm not sure I ever got it! >;-P

But man did it ever make me think about exactly what I was doing. N it was highly entertaining (is it bad that I'm thoroughly amused by attempting to achieve the impossible?). @ one point I got so confuzled (yes that's a word :) that even real basics were getting lost while I tried to organize everything else. Which I suppose is technically NOT a good thing, but I loved the challenge, and Denny seemed happy w/ the attempt if not necessarily the result. Although he did seem to think there's @ least a smidgen of potential there, so that's a relief!

My record before today was 7 corrections @ one time. N that was YEARS ago. Marg came close w/ 6 back when I was riding Rios. I remember that :) Today I think blew all records away. N since I was actually trying to apply them all (rather than counting them!) I didn't have enuff brain cells LEFT to count! I'm afraid calculus is forever gone -- it got ejected from memory somewhere between "hands down" and "hands up" hahaha Such a shame.

On a completely different note that many of you will understand -- this particular horse is beyond terrified of cows. Now he's only been on the property since yesterday (this woman brought him in for me to ride since Cayman got vetoed) -- so he's still a little concerned about life and spends a lot of time calling. Off we go for a hack (unescorted -- woohoo!) and he's calling and calling and all the horses are ignoring him. Well I guess this one kind cow took pity on him and answered. A nice long low Moooooo. OMG was poor RC (Rio Clone) ever stunned. Whipped around in a circle and froze. His little heart was pounding at top speed. But the cow was well out of sight... hahaha well I'll tell ya -- RC didn't make another sound for the rest of the ride :) hehehe if you yell, it tells the monsters where you are! Well it amused me anyways :)

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“Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps." - George

“…I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” - Frost

The above tenets are basically how I live my life - much to the amusement of friends and family. Stared with documenting the life of an adult working student, followed through starting and running a riding school, and is now telling the stories of my adventures in adulting.